Articles

Brian Fahy, reflecting on his own life experiences, decides that “Emotional self-sufficiency is a destructive notion. We need the interplay of one another and the learning processes that enable us to move into emotional inter-dependence if a healthy life is to ensue.”
It is a timely reminder along with the call in The Tablet for seminary reform. “The seminary system dates from the sixteenth century, and aimed to produce experts in the Catholic faith. That’s all well and good; but there are other needs too. Modern priests should also be mature human beings who can understand the modern world without being absorbed by it.”

Chris McDonnell in a recent article in the Catholic Times writes of student attempts in the U.S. to bring about reform in gun laws where adults fail or refuse to do so.
He asks “What can the Church contribute to the discussion?” “We are quick-and rightly so-to condemn abortion. This .. crisis is also a matter of right to life and demands courageous action.”

Vatican News covers the story that the Australian Catholic Church, with the approval of Pope Francis, will hold a Plenary Council in 2020 to discuss its way forward in light of the challenges it faces in contemporary society.
With speculation that arrangements for Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland will be announced this week would it be too much to hope that a Council like Australia’s could be called for Ireland. It might have more lasting benefit that a Papal visit.

Seamus Ahearne casts and eye over recent happenings.
“We celebrated St Patrick. Was his father a deacon and his grandfather a priest? I don’t know. The accretions of history have decorated the story and there is great unsureness. But it doesn’t matter really, the essentials of faith and mission have survived. His Confessions are delightful in their simplicity; evocative as a story; inspirational in how God works despite our own shortcomings.”

Brendan Hoban looks at the latest statement by Cardinal Sarah.”Sarah advocates receiving Communion on the tongue while kneeling as being more in line with tradition and more respectful than receiving it on the tongue.
He’s wrong on both counts.”

Seamus Ahearne reviews a new publication by Pádraig McCarthy.

“Whether you agree with Padraig McCarthy’s line of argument in this book or not, he ruthlessly presents the core questions. The seriousness of the proposed Referendum makes it important that his book be read and studied. He has done us a service.”

Updated with a summary of the main points made by Pádraig McCarthy

Kevin Hegarty, writing in The Mayo News, comments on the decision not to allow Mary McAleese express her views on Vatican property. Kevin sees the decision as a symptom of a huge problem. “This recent controversy highlights once again the density of patriarchy in the institutional Catholic Church. It is the last bastion of exclusive male domination in the western world.
Misogyny in the Vatican is draped in theological abstractions especially in regard to female ordination. Such patriarchy is as insidious and destructive as woodworm in furniture.”

‘We are Church’ in call to bishops; “The continued exclusion of women from all ministries including the priesthood and from executive functions in the Catholic Church is an injustice that must be ended. How can our Church continue to proclaim global justice for the marginalised when it accepts an injustice within the Church that marginalises half of its own members” 

Brian Fahy ponders on what Salvation means today.

Thomas O’Loughlin takes issue with Cardinal Sarah following his most recent statement on the Eucharist.
“I suspect many Christians have been taken aback by Cardinal Sarah’s judgment that communion in the hand is the most recent engagement between the good angels, and Lucifer and his demons”.
Our thanks to Brendan Walsh editor of The Tablet for permission to publish this article which first appeared in The Tablet, 23 February.

Sarah McDonald writes in the Irish Independent of the further censoring of material issuing from the World Meeting of Families.
On this occasion “A bishop’s comments expressing conciliatory views on same-sex couples raising children were edited out of a video promoted by the World Meeting of Families (WMF).”

Updated to include We Are Church Statement.

Seamus Ahearne uses the storm enforced break to reflect on the happenings in parish life.
“the Snow has stopped us in our tracks. Anything and everything that wakes up our minds and helps us look again at life, is a gift. “

Brian Fahy reflects on how a life well lived affects us not just during the person’s life but long after they have departed this world.

Brendan Hoban in the Western People outlines the campaign being waged against Fr. James Martin. “What’s clear is that Fr. Martin is no heretic. He’s in good standing with his Church, supported by his Jesuit colleagues and respected in his ministry. He’s not rejecting church teaching. He’s doing what Pope Francis himself has done, creating a space in the Catholic Church for LGBT people and creating greater awareness of the need to respect them”.
“The truth is that, in America, the presence of homophobic groups who place themselves under the umbrella of ‘Catholic’, are spewing unimagined levels of vitriol on anyone whom they believe is compromising what they see as ‘Catholic teaching’. It is a sinister and corrosive development that runs counter to the gospel, to the mercy Pope Francis consistently underlines and even to minimal standards of civility and respect.”